The original "Ed Anger" of WWN was a liberal from Texas. He wrote the column for about 26 years, IIRC, with tongue heavily in cheek and probably chuckling at each new outrage his alter ego ranted against. The WWN outlived him for a while but the anthrax attack on the Boca Raton, Florida, offices of America Media, Inc., the company that published WWN and most of the other tabloids, destroyed the massive photo archives of the newspaper and killed the photo editor.

Since the "news" stories for which WWN was notorious (and which had once graced the National Enquirer) were heavily dependant on Photoshops of the regular features (Bat Boy, Big Foot, Aliens, etc.) the newspaper was pretty much killed by the loss of its valued editor and material. Much of the topical content was the type of news story which Fark.com and the Fortean Times (print and online) handle--weird news that "really happened", or at least was reported by more reputable journals and newspapers.

There's a history of the tabloids and Pope (the publisher of this select journalism) which I read but I don't recall the name or author.

brantgoose:Fart_Machine: I always wondered what became of that Ed Anger guy.

The original "Ed Anger" of WWN was a liberal from Texas. He wrote the column for about 26 years, IIRC, with tongue heavily in cheek and probably chuckling at each new outrage his alter ego ranted against. The WWN outlived him for a while but the anthrax attack on the Boca Raton, Florida, offices of America Media, Inc., the company that published WWN and most of the other tabloids, destroyed the massive photo archives of the newspaper and killed the photo editor.

Since the "news" stories for which WWN was notorious (and which had once graced the National Enquirer) were heavily dependant on Photoshops of the regular features (Bat Boy, Big Foot, Aliens, etc.) the newspaper was pretty much killed by the loss of its valued editor and material. Much of the topical content was the type of news story which Fark.com and the Fortean Times (print and online) handle--weird news that "really happened", or at least was reported by more reputable journals and newspapers.

There's a history of the tabloids and Pope (the publisher of this select journalism) which I read but I don't recall the name or author.

Thanks for the info. I loved that newspaper. My favorite story was the one about how migrant workers were up in arms (pun intended) by a secret formula the growers had come up with that made your arms grow longer, enabling the workers to harvest fruit trees while standing on the ground. Brilliantly stupid.

For everyone else it's assassinations, corruption, militaristic policing, world's highest incarceration rate, imperialist wars, corporate kickbacks, manipulative political campaigns, pollution of poor and marginalized communities, exploitation at work, foreclosure (ah but the threat of your door being kicked in and you being dragged away by armed thugs is rarely followed through on, because the family capitulates in terror, so this doesn't count- right?)... And maybe someone should let you know about what happens in foreign client countries ruled by US-backed puppets to make sure the supply of raw materials, textiles, and cheap plastic crap keeps flowing, and to keep markets propped open for subsidized American corn and grain.

Whoopee. We freely elect you cretins to go to Washington and "represent" us by running up the national credit card to the tune of $1 trillion every year, and by making more than $100 trillion worth of future entitlement obligations that you know perfectly well there is not enough money in the entire world to pay for.

"The Democratic Senate hasn't passed a budget in four years. The Republican House enables this irresponsibility by continuing to approve the continuing spending resolutions that make it possible, even as they rail rhetorically against the very profligate spending that wouldn't have been possible without their cooperation.

Our Constitution is one of the most brilliant documents ever written, but our elected officials ignore any part of it that inconveniences them, and a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court is perfectly willing to let them do it.

I hate to tell you this, but our government sucks. And yet these jackoffs march and preen for the cameras in narcissistic celebration of themselves"

Watching Obama and his media celebrate yesterday was kind of like watching Rex Ryan throw a nationally televised parade to honor himself, the Jets storied 2012 season and the fact that he's still going to be the coach next year.

MFL:Watching Obama and his media celebrate yesterday was kind of like watching Rex Ryan throw a nationally televised parade to honor himself, the Jets storied 2012 season and the fact that he's still going to be the coach next year.

I'm as Liberal as the come and didn't watch it because I couldn't stomach all the pomp and ceremony. Why you watched it is odd. You must have some type of pseudo erotic victim complex. Were you furiously masturbating while you were sobbing?

MFL:Watching Obama and his media celebrate yesterday was kind of like watching Rex Ryan throw a nationally televised parade to honor himself, the Jets storied 2012 season and the fact that he's still going to be the coach next year.

Snapper Carr:Cythraul: Snapper Carr: Although it doesn't apply to yesterday, I think 224 years of bloodless, relatively orderly transfers of executive authority is worth celebrating.

What about that whole 'civil war' thing?

The civil war was not an attempt to circumvent Article 2 of the US Consitution

Really? I don't remember the CSA thinking that Abe Lincoln would be their President. No, the civil war was almost entirely about throwing out Article 2 because not a single slave was freed when the CSA was established. Someone they didn't like got elected and they threw a fit. Kind of like what is going on today - and it's the same damn people. Instead of someone who might have been sympathetic to the plight of the black man, it is a black man. Too bad reconstruction didn't last a little longer.

Magorn:Cythraul: Snapper Carr: Although it doesn't apply to yesterday, I think 224 years of bloodless, relatively orderly transfers of executive authority is worth celebrating.

What about that whole 'civil war' thing?

Since I am a history buff, that whole Orderly transfer of Power thing, really got me to thinking. If you look at history, the fatal weakness of nearly every empire that has ever been, the one that brings them down in the end, is invariably a lack of rules for a peaceful sucession. Empire after empire has either torn itself apart on the death of its founder (Ghengis Khan's, Alexander the Great's) or bled itself to weakness and poverty in civil wars and wars of dynastic sucession. (Rome, The Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire etc) . I'm tryin to think of any historical parallel of another politcal entity that was as powerful as the USA and still managed (with the one noteable exception you mentioned) to peacefully hand over the regins of power as often as we have. China maybe?

China had ongoing warlord style conflicts between dynasties. Standing armies were used to suppress the upstarts. "Mandate of Heaven" is best translated into "Family with biggest army who doesn't piss off the population". If you end up pissing off the population, they start giving aid and comfort to the upstarts, and you start loosing those battles instead of suppressing them.

MFL:Watching Obama and his media celebrate yesterday was kind of like watching Rex Ryan throw a nationally televised parade to honor himself, the Jets storied 2012 season and the fact that he's still going to be the coach next year.

Cythraul:Magorn: Cythraul: Snapper Carr: Although it doesn't apply to yesterday, I think 224 years of bloodless, relatively orderly transfers of executive authority is worth celebrating.

What about that whole 'civil war' thing?

Since I am a history buff, that whole Orderly transfer of Power thing, really got me to thinking. If you look at history, the fatal weakness of nearly every empire that has ever been, the one that brings them down in the end, is invariably a lack of rules for a peaceful sucession. Empire after empire has either torn itself apart on the death of its founder (Ghengis Khan's, Alexander the Great's) or bled itself to weakness and poverty in civil wars and wars of dynastic sucession. (Rome, The Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire etc) . I'm tryin to think of any historical parallel of another politcal entity that was as powerful as the USA and still managed (with the one noteable exception you mentioned) to peacefully hand over the regins of power as often as we have. China maybe?

No, China would definitely not be in the list of peaceful succession of power.

How about Britain? They had an empire for a while, and during their supposed decline, they had a stable system of power transference.

I was actually thinking Roman Republican era, it having run just about 500 years. He did mention being an historian, right?

Brian_of_Nazareth:Cythraul: Magorn: Cythraul: Snapper Carr: Although it doesn't apply to yesterday, I think 224 years of bloodless, relatively orderly transfers of executive authority is worth celebrating.

What about that whole 'civil war' thing?

Since I am a history buff, that whole Orderly transfer of Power thing, really got me to thinking. If you look at history, the fatal weakness of nearly every empire that has ever been, the one that brings them down in the end, is invariably a lack of rules for a peaceful sucession. Empire after empire has either torn itself apart on the death of its founder (Ghengis Khan's, Alexander the Great's) or bled itself to weakness and poverty in civil wars and wars of dynastic sucession. (Rome, The Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire etc) . I'm tryin to think of any historical parallel of another politcal entity that was as powerful as the USA and still managed (with the one noteable exception you mentioned) to peacefully hand over the regins of power as often as we have. China maybe?

No, China would definitely not be in the list of peaceful succession of power.

How about Britain? They had an empire for a while, and during their supposed decline, they had a stable system of power transference.

I was actually thinking Roman Republican era, it having run just about 500 years. He did mention being an historian, right?

Your derp brigade is pretending to be Canadian now? Is this like dumbass kids sewing Canadian flags on their backpacks? Guess what, if you can't correctly state the dimensions of a Canadian football field and explain the workings of the rouge you are not Canadian and subject to ppv rape by moose.

Brian_of_Nazareth:Cythraul: Magorn: Cythraul: Snapper Carr: Although it doesn't apply to yesterday, I think 224 years of bloodless, relatively orderly transfers of executive authority is worth celebrating.

What about that whole 'civil war' thing?

Since I am a history buff, that whole Orderly transfer of Power thing, really got me to thinking. If you look at history, the fatal weakness of nearly every empire that has ever been, the one that brings them down in the end, is invariably a lack of rules for a peaceful sucession. Empire after empire has either torn itself apart on the death of its founder (Ghengis Khan's, Alexander the Great's) or bled itself to weakness and poverty in civil wars and wars of dynastic sucession. (Rome, The Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire etc) . I'm tryin to think of any historical parallel of another politcal entity that was as powerful as the USA and still managed (with the one noteable exception you mentioned) to peacefully hand over the regins of power as often as we have. China maybe?

No, China would definitely not be in the list of peaceful succession of power.

How about Britain? They had an empire for a while, and during their supposed decline, they had a stable system of power transference.

I was actually thinking Roman Republican era, it having run just about 500 years. He did mention being an historian, right?

Cheers.

Uh, I'm not sure what you're talking about. He seemed to ask if any empire in history that has since faded from its imperial status ever had a stable system of power transference. You seem to be putting a condition on that question specific to a particular time period.

Cythraul:I'm tryin to think of any historical parallel of another politcal entity that was as powerful as the USA and still managed (with the one noteable exception you mentioned) to peacefully hand over the regins of power as often as we have.

Canada Free Press is neither Canadian nor press. This article doesn't even do a good job of pretending to be Canadian. I don't know of any Canadians that refer to the US Congress and POTUS as "our democratically elected government".

But this guy's an American... writing for Canada Free Press? I don't even...

Most of their writers are Americans. I believe it's a situation where the originator of the site is a Canuck couple and then they source all their content from Americans. I did a bunch of research into this troll site the first time it popped up on Fark, but arsed if I can remember it all now. They've started scrubbing biography content too, looks like.